A Little Bad
by JDPhoenix
Summary: JONAS PHM Challenge 9 response. Changes at Horace Mantis cause some big problems for the Lucas brothers and their friends.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not won, nor am I associated with, JONAS. No profit is made from this work.

AN: This is for the PHM challenge 9. I chose the prompt to turn a classic into a JONAS story. I'm not telling you what the classic is until the end, or until someone guesses correctly! Also, fair warning, these are gonna be shorter chapters than I usually post. That's just the way the story came out.

**A Little Bad**

The scream filled the fire house and for several seconds the Lucas brothers merely sat, tense, at the table, debating silently whether or not they should go up and investigate. Kevin worried that the pet hamster he wasn't supposed to have had escaped its secret cage. Joe thought maybe Stella had found the hideous orange sweater his great-aunt Carol had given him and he'd hid in the depths of the Stellavator. Nick didn't care what had caused the scream, he just really hoped he didn't have to deal with the repercussions. Not daring to move their chairs the three slid out of their seats and tip-toed towards the door. The rabid fangirls outside were preferable to Stella in one of her moods.

* * *

"Go on," Joe gasped, "without me." He slumped against the side of a building, hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

"Joe," Nick said, clutching his aching side, "they're gone. We lost them." Sure enough, the horde of crazed fans had disappeared nearly a block earlier. Their high-pitched cries couldn't even be heard in the distance anymore.

"Well, it doesn't matter. Because I'm going to pass out right here."

"Are you sure?" Kevin asked. "Because we're almost to Mrs. Misa's store."

"Fine," Joe huffed, pushing himself away from the wall and staggering down the street, "but they'd better have gotten a couch donated recently.

They had. Joe fell face-first into the hideous maroon cushions while Kevin explained their troubles to Macy and Nick tried to force his way onto the couch.

"Oh, yeah," Macy said uncomfortably, leaning over the counter to see how Nick was faring against Joe. Already tired, Nick decided to cut his losses and sat on the floor, resting his head on the arm of the couch. Macy continued, "I figured she'd be pretty angry when she saw the e-mail."

"Uh-bow uh?" Joe asked, his face still buried in the cushions.

Macy looked to Kevin for translation.

"About what?"

"Oh. About the new school dress code."

"What!" the brothers chorused. Joe tried to push himself off the couch but ended up falling off instead, his legs smacking Nick in the head. Nick pushed him away and took the couch for himself while Joe rushed to the counter.

"What did you say?" Joe asked.

"The new dress code," Macy said sadly. "It's really strict."

"Oh man!" Joe wailed. "I knew. I knew the minute they said the principal was leaving that something horrible would happen because of it."

"No you didn't," Nick snapped. "You wanted to throw a party."

"Which was kind of stupid," Kevin said, "because Principal Duncan was awesome."

"She really was," Macy agreed. "And now that she's gone Vice Principal Angeletti is really cracking down. Stella's gonna go nuts."

"Well," Nick began, "he's not really doing anything wrong. Just because Duncan was always so lenient doesn't mean everyone has to be."

"Nick," Joe said, "you do realize that Stella's probably going to have a nervous breakdown, right?"

"That's a bit extreme, don't you think?"

"That's the point!" Kevin said. "Stella's a bit extreme."

"She'll get over it," Nick said and rolled into the couch, pushing a pillow over his ear to block out their talking.

"Well," Joe sighed, "I suppose I'll head back to the house."

"Really?" Kevin asked, clearly frightened for his brother.

"Yeah. The longer she has to wait the worse it'll be when she finally gets a chance to rant."

Joe trudged out the door, leaving Kevin and Macy relatively alone.

"So," Kevin said, "when do you get off?"

Macy's blush was instantaneous. "W-why?" she asked.

"I wanted to go to the pet store in the mall and thought you might like to come look at all the pets with me."

"Oh. Sure! Just let me ask my mom." She sped into the back room and Kevin only heard muffled talking followed by what he could have sworn was a fangirl squeal before Macy returned. "Let's go. She said she'd watch the store and Nick."

"Cool."

* * *

Since Kevin's car was back at the firehouse Macy drove and the two spent the ride singing along to the JONAS CD that came on automatically when she started the car. Luckily Macy'd had the foresight to grab a hat and sunglasses for Kevin from the store before they left, otherwise they probably would have been mobbed by the teen girls who were spending the lazy Saturday afternoon hanging at the mall.

"So," Macy said as they crossed the parking lot, "are you excited?"

"Of course!" Kevin cried. "We get to see the puppies and the kitties and the little baby turtles!"

"No," Macy said, giggling, "I mean about next weekend. You get to play for the President!"

"Oh, right. I guess so, I'm just hoping this goes better than when we met the Queen. Joe still can't see anything bright green without twitching." He held the door to the mall open for her while she smiled. They were going in one of the side entrances, as far away from the food court as possible, but still close to the pet store.

"Well, I think it's awesome, anyway. You have to tell me all about it -- I don't mean for the website, though I'd love to get an interview with you for it -- I mean I want you to tell me because you guys are my friends and I care about the important things that happen in your lives and --"

Kevin cut her off. "You can come if you want."

Macy froze beside a cell phone kiosk. "What?" she asked.

"Everyone else is," Kevin explained with a shrug. "Dad and Mom and Frankie. And Big Man and Stella, but they have to. We're gonna fly down Friday night, do the concert Saturday and spend the rest of the time walking around the capitol. Mom wants it to be educational but it'll probably be fun too."

"You're serious? You want me to come with you guys?"

"Of course. I wouldn't ask if I didn't mean it."

Macy gave Kevin a bear hug. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she cried, nearly knocking his hat and glasses off.

"No problem," Kevin said, smiling.

When they reached the pet store they both stopped at the window to watch the puppies, most of whom were taking a nap. Only one was awake, alternating between wagging his tail at them and running back to tug on one of his brothers' ears.

"They're so cute!" Macy said. "If our building allowed pets I'd so ask my mom for one."

Kevin winced. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Of course," Macy said, sobering instantly. "What is it?"

"I didn't just come here for the puppies." He glanced around cautiously before leaning close to whisper, "I have a secret hamster."

"How do you keep a hamster a secret?" Macy asked.

"It's tricky," Kevin admitted, "but I want to get him a ball so he can run around our room when no one's home."

"Okay," Macy said, containing her joy that he would trust her with his secret. "I promise I won't tell."

"Thanks," Kevin said, grinning widely. "I don't think Nick would be happy if he knew, but the little guy needed a home. I couldn't say no."

"Where'd you get him?"

"We helped one of Frankie's friends move last week and the hamster belonged to him. They were moving in with his grandparents and his grandma is afraid of any kind of rodent. He was gonna have to take him to the pound."

"Oh, that's sad. Well, then I'm proud of you for saving the poor little guy. Now let's find him a ball and figure out how to sneak it into your house without anyone noticing."

* * *

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	2. Chapter 2

A Little Bad

By the time Monday rolled around and the new dress code was in full force Stella had come to terms with her fate. She walked onto campus that day wearing the exact same outfit everyone else was. No alterations, no accessories, just the simple uniform.

"It's gonna be okay, Stells," Joe said, coming up beside her and taking the rolling suitcase from her hand. "Hey," he said, pausing, "this is empty." He lifted the suitcase up with a single finger as proof.

"I know," Stella said sadly, "it's so I can take home all the extra clothes I keep in my locker."

"Don't you mean locker_sss_?"

"Yes," she bit out. "I suppose I can give that extra one back now."

He leaned into her and was pleased when she smiled back at him. "Do you want any help?"

"You don't have to --"

"Hey. I aced Stella Malone's Clothes Folding 101 course. When else am I gonna use those skills?"

Her expression turned serious and he quickly added, "Other than every single time I fold my laundry or pack for a trip, I mean."

"That's right," she said as they reached her lockers. "And I'd be glad to have your help."

They started with the second one, emptying it of various accessories, fabrics, and odds and ends before moving on to the locker she actually used for school. Inside it were extra uniforms for both her and the guys, each of them altered to be more fashionable than the simple uniforms they were forced to wear now.

"Aw, man," Joe muttered, folding his extra shirt, "I love this one. You think it'd be weird if I wore it on tour?"

"You're serious?" Stella asked.

"Yeah. We could have a whole number where we wear the old uniforms. There's no point in letting them go to waste."

Stella grinned. "Thanks."

"I'm not doing it for you," Joe said. "Well, not _just _for you. We all really do like the uniforms you made us."

Stella took the shirt from him and put it in the suitcase with a sigh. "That's the last of it." She zipped it up and pulled it up onto its wheels. Joe grabbed it from her and threw his free hand around her shoulders, pulling her towards the parking lot so they could put the suitcase in her car before class.

* * *

"They're so cute," Macy said, watching Joe and Stella pass her by.

"Yeah," Kevin agreed. "But not nearly as cute as Mr. Piebald."

"The hamster?" Macy asked.

Kevin nodded. "Did you bring the you-know-what?"

Macy pulled the clear plastic ball out of her book bag. "I'll put it in my football helmet when I change for PE, then I'll swing by the firehouse after school and no one will ever suspect a thing."

"Thanks, Mace."

Macy's eyes widened and she quickly stuffed the ball back into her bag, along with her Chemistry and English books, neither of which she needed until after lunch. Kevin had called her Mace! He'd used her nickname! And all she could do was think about how much she wished he'd leave so she could text Stella and how much she wished he'd stay so they could talk some more. Of course, the talking would be easier if she actually paid attention to anything he was saying.

"I'm sorry, Kevin, could you repeat that?"

"Do you think Stella's gonna be okay? I mean, she spent like all weekend at our house watching _Clueless_ and _Pride and Prejudice_."

Macy winced. "That's never a good sign. The last time she power watched girl movies was when that Sharona Knows blog put you guys on the fashion don't list."

"Yeah," Kevin said slowly, "that Sharona's mean."

"But she'll be fine," Macy said quickly. "If Stella could somehow let Fiona Skye walk out of this school alive then she can get used to the uniforms. Just give her a few days."

"Hey!" Kevin said suddenly. "Maybe if she was excited about this weekend it'd help get her mind off the uniforms."

"Kevin! That's a great idea!"

"Really?" Kevin asked, genuinely surprised.

"Of course." The bell rang before she could say any more. "Dang," she muttered. "I'll catch her between classes and tell her how excited I am to be coming along. I -- am -- still coming along, right?"

"Yeah. Mom and Dad said it was a great idea. 'Cause Mom was gonna room with Stella and Dad was gonna room with Frankie and now they're gonna put Frankie in our room and you'll room with Stella and Mom and Dad'll be together. They were _really_ happy. It was kind of creepy."

Macy snickered. "Good, I'm glad they're okay with it. I'll see you at lunch."

* * *

Nick sat in the atrium, strumming out what he hoped would be the chorus to a new song. Usually he would sit with his brothers during lunch but he'd gotten this idea during History and really wanted to get the song hammered out before the lunch hour ended. He leaned over, making a note in the binder he had laid out on the bench beside him.

"_Mis_-ter Lucas!" a harsh voice snapped.

Nick jumped, he hadn't heard the door open. The shiver that ran up his spine at the sight of the new principal confused him a bit. He'd never been intimidated by authority figures before. He shrugged it off and stood politely.

"Hello, sir."

Principal Angeletti looked down his nose at the guitar in Nick's hand. "Are you enrolled in any music classes, Mr. Lucas?"

Nick frowned. "Um, no, sir."

At the "um" Angeletti's frown deepened. "Well then, it seems we have a problem."

"Problem, sir?" Nick wasn't sure why he kept ending every sentence with the term of respect, he just felt compelled to do so while under Angeletti's unwavering gaze.

"Musical instruments are to be used only in the music rooms unless part of an approved performance."

"But the music rooms are for classes," Nick said slowly. "Sir. I can't go in there to work on my songs."

"Exactly. Which means you won't be lugging your guitar around campus and breaking into song any longer. You can keep your guitar with you for the rest of the day but I don't expect to see it on campus again. Are we clear?"

Nick's hand tightened around the neck of his guitar. He was starting to see why the others had been so against Angeletti's crack down.

"Crystal, sir," he said stiffly and watched angrily as Principal Angeletti went to find a new student to torture.

* * *

"He's evil," Nick said, sitting down so hard at the lunch table that he almost bruised his tailbone.

"Who?" Kevin asked.

"Angeletti," Nick said so viciously it sounded like a curse. "He just told me I can't bring my guitar to school anymore."

"**What**?" Kevin and Joe cried in unison.

"You heard me," Nick said, not wanting to repeat the painful fact.

"Well don't tell Stella," Kevin hissed, watching as Macy and Stella approached with their lunch trays. "Macy's trying to cheer her up and if you ruin all her work she might kill you."

Nick's eyes darted to Macy and he paled slightly. He nodded just before the girl's attention turned to them.

"Hey, guys," Stella said, "what's up?"

"Nothing," the three chorused.

Macy and Stella exchanged a look. It took only a second but in it the guys could see an entire conversation of girl-speak.

"_They're hiding something."_

"_Kevin's voice _was_ a pinch too high."_

"_It would be better not to ask though, don't you think?"_

"_Why ruin their chivalry? We'll let it go. For now anyway." _

"_Definitely."_

And then they were back, smiling and asking Joe if he'd taken notes in Physics last week.

"Yeah," Joe said, pulling out his binder. "You wanna look them over before the quiz?"

Macy nodded. "I need to bring my grade up. I have a B, but if I don't have at least an 88 I don't feel comfortable."

Joe tried to hand the binder to Stella but since he wasn't one to organize it was bursting and slipped out of his hand. It landed on the edge of his tray with enough force to send his soda and his burger flying at him. The burger opened as it flew and hit him square in the chest, leaving a trail of mustard, ketchup, and pickles in its wake. The soda hit his shoulder, the icy liquid soaking almost instantly through his jacket to his shirt.

Macy's hands flew to her mouth, Nick and Kevin looked on in horror, and Stella merely stared, her face betraying no emotion at all -- which was probably worse than if she'd been visibly furious.

"Wow," Nick said, breaking the silence.

"That was --" Kevin began.

"Don't say it," Joe and Stella said at the same time.

Joe opened his mouth to ask Stella to meet him at the nearest boys restroom with a new shirt (he'd know her by the super secret knock they used in situations like this) but then realized she didn't have a new shirt for him.

"We don't have a choice," Stella said. She'd clearly realized the same thing. "You can't go around all day like that. Not only will some paparazzo magically show up to take a photo, but the uniform rules include sloppiness."

"They also include wearing uniforms that haven't been augmented," Nick pointed out.

"Principal Angeletti's one man," Stella said. "He can't be everywhere. Joe'll just explain to his teachers why he's wearing a non-regulation shirt, which will be barely noticeable under his totally regulation jacket."

"There aren't any regulation jackets in the suitcase, Stella," Joe said.

"No," Stella said, smiling at his brothers, "but Nick has PE next and Kevin has PE after that and then it's the end of the day. You can borrow their jackets. They won't fit as well, but they'll have to do." She stood. "Joe. I'll meet you at the nearest bathroom in ten minutes. Listen for the knock. Macy. Study. A fashion crisis is no reason for you to fail the quiz." With that she walked away, heading for the nearest exit.

* * *

Joe breathed a sigh of relief as he walked out of Trig with Stella. School was over, they'd all done well on their Physics quiz last period, and Stella wasn't even ranting about Angeletti. In fact, she was gushing about how much fun they were all going to have in D.C. that weekend. Other than Nick not getting to bring his guitar to school anymore, things seemed to be going just fine.

"Kevin!" Joe called, slipping off the jacket he wore. He caught up with Kevin by their lockers and handed it over. "Thanks, man."

"No problem," Kevin said, putting the jacket on. "I'm just glad Angeletti didn't catch you. One Lucas brother in trouble is more than enough."

"What do you mean 'one Lucas brother'?" Stella asked. When Joe winced and Kevin shot him a wild, desperate look Stella asked, "Kevin! Did Angeletti bust you for something?"

"Of course not," Joe said. "Kevin just meant Frankie's usually up to something so that gets him in 'trouble.'" He made exaggerated air quotes. Everyone knew Frankie almost never got in trouble for his stunts. After three older boys, the Lucas parents had grown much more lax in their punishments.

"Exactly," Kevin said, his voice growing higher. "Oh! Do I see Kimmy over there? I should go say hi, mend that bridge, it's been long enough, bye!" Kevin sped away.

Stella folded her arms over her chest and leaned casually against Kevin's locker with a "you don't seriously expect me to buy that" look. Joe pointedly avoided her gaze, rummaging needlessly in his own locker. After nearly a minute Stella huffed.

"Come on, Joe! Tell me what Kevin meant! Did he get in trouble with Angeletti?"

"No, but Mr. Joseph Lucas is about to."

The two teens turned slowly to face Mr. Angeletti.

"Nice shirt you have there, Mr. Lucas."

At once they both began speaking.

"Oh, come on! School's over! You can't bust me for this _now_! No one even saw it during class! It wasn't distracting anyone at all! And isn't that the whole point of the uniforms, so that our outfits don't distract from the educational process?"

"You can't blame him! It's all my fault! I made him change into the shirt and made it seem like it was a sound plan when really we all knew it wasn't going to work -- our plans never work! They always end in fire and chaos -- well, not fire, but something horrifying _like_ fire --"

"Quiet!" Angeletti bellowed so loudly that all traffic in the hallway ceased. At the sudden quiet he turned, facing the rest of the students. "I believe you all have homes you were quite eager to return to." Traffic immediately picked up once more. "Now, as for you Mr. Lucas."

"It's my fault!" Stella repeated, putting herself between the two of them. "Really it is. I'm the one who made the shirt and I'm the one who made him wear it when his other one got ruined. Punish me."

"No!" Joe said, pushing Stella behind him. "I'm the one wearing the shirt. I'm the one who should be punished."

"Joe!" Stella hissed.

"Stel-_la_," Joe returned.

"Regardless! Mr. Lucas is correct, Miss Malone. You are 'off the hook' as it were. Mr. Lucas, you have detention."

Joe sighed, his shoulders hunching. "What room is it in today?" he asked sadly.

"Oh no, not today. You have detention this Saturday. Eight o'clock sharp. A.M. Don't be late."

Stella and Joe gaped at his retreating back.

* * *

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	3. Chapter 3

AN: From the low number of reviews and the lack of excitement in them I realize that most of you probably didn't realize just how bad Joe getting detention was. You can all blame my beta, even though I tried to sneak it in she figured out right away that something bad was going to happen to that little plot point and I foolishly assumed everyone would when I continued writing. Anyway, things get a lot worse in this chapter, so if you enjoy seeing beloved characters be tortured, you're in luck!

AN2: This chapter has a major-plot-point-equivalent for the classic, so I won't give you any clues. Though, that was kind of a clue, wasn't it?

**A Little Bad**

Stella, Macy, Kevin, Joe, and Nick sat in the boys' room. Nick kept spinning around in the chair at his keyboard, unable to break his funk even to compose a song, Kevin strummed dully at his guitar, Macy tossed a football in the air, and Stella and Joe sat hand in hand on one of the couches.

Nick had found Joe and Stella standing at the lockers. When neither of them responded to his questions he'd run to get Macy and Kevin. Luckily for them he'd only been relieved instead of confused at finding them together. Between the three of them they managed to get the whole story out of Stella and Joe and they'd all made their way back to the firehouse where they'd told Mr. Lucas what had happened.

That had been over an hour ago. Ever since Mr. Lucas had been on the phone with the school, asking if this wasn't "a bit harsh" for a one time offense.

"Okay!" Mr. Lucas said, running up the stairs. Everyone perked up, eager to hear him deliver some good news. He looked from face to face as he spoke, giving nothing away. "Here's the deal. Your new principal is claiming that since these have always been the rules and the old principal was just lax about enforcing them, that this _isn't_ a first time offense and you _should_ be punished severely."

"But you talked some sense into him," Nick asked, "right?"

"No. But I did give him an earful."

Joe stood and Stella kept her grip on his hand. "Did you tell him we're supposed to be performing for the _President_?"

"Yes, I did."

"Did you tell him it's the President of the _United States_?" Kevin asked.

Mr. Lucas's somber expression broke slightly. "Yes, Kevin, I did. He doesn't seem to care."

Joe groaned and fell back onto the couch.

"_But_," Mr. Lucas continued, "your mom did come up with what I think is a pretty good idea. You, Joe, go to Principal Angeletti tomorrow and plead your case. You can explain what happened and you can even offer the band's services the next time the school needs to do some fund raising."

"You think that'll work?" Macy asked.

"It had better. I do not want to be the one to cancel on the White House." Mr. Lucas left the teens to wallow in their misfortune.

"We're doomed," Joe said. "I'll never be able to talk Angeletti into letting me off the hook."

"Yes, you can," Nick said determinedly. "You just have to --"

"Nick. I'm not you. I can't present a sound and reasonable argument. I failed Debate. Twice."

"I wasn't going to tell you to debate your way out of this."

"You weren't?" Kevin asked. "Because I totally thought you were gonna do that and then we were gonna have a montage of you walking Joe through the steps of a debate."

"No," Nick said. "I was going to tell you to beg."

"That Joe can do," Stella said.

"Hey!" Joe cried.

"What? I'm just stating a fact. You are really good at begging."

"Oh yeah," Macy said with a grin. "Like that time you begged Stella not to punish you for wearing the wrong shoes. That was --" she saw Joe's angry expression -- "not funny at all."

Stella patted Joe's shoulder. "You can do this. I'm sure Angeletti will see reason. He probably just wanted to make a big show for the first day. He'll cool off soon enough."

"And if he doesn't?" Joe asked sadly.

Stella's gaze drifted off into the middle distance. "Then I will upend the world of fashion just to make sure that man is never In, ever again!" She blinked, looking around at the frightened faces around her. "Or -- something less crazy."

In the uncomfortable silence that followed Nick spotted Macy's football helmet at the floor at her feet.

"Macy?" he asked.

"Yeah?"

"Isn't football season over?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Why do you have your helmet?"

"Oh," Stella cut in, "Macy always keeps all her sports gear at school. That way she's ready in case there's a sports emergency."

"What's a sports emergency?" Kevin asked eagerly.

Macy smiled. "You remember last semester when Jared Summers needed to be punished?"

"You mean when he started bragging about getting to second base with Cheryl Wynn even though she said it never happened?" Joe asked.

"Did you ever wonder how he got so completely tangled in that volleyball net?"

"A scary girl in a football helmet came at him in a dark and foreboding hallway?" Nick asked.

"Well, it wasn't dark or foreboding. But yeah."

"But why is the helmet here?" Stella asked.

"No reason," Macy and Kevin said together.

Nick, Joe and Stella exchanged a look.

"Let's let that go," Nick said, "we have enough to worry about. Come on, Joe, let's see how good you are at begging."

Joe moaned but Kevin let out a "Yay! Begging montage!" When everyone turned to him he said, "What? I like a good training montage, it doesn't matter what the training's for."

* * *

Joe said "please" a total of 87 times. The others knew, they were standing outside the principal's office listening while he gave his apology and plead for his freedom.

Angeletti wasn't hearing any of it.

"Come on, Mr. Angeletti!" Joe said. He was fully whining now. All of his other begging tactics had failed and he was left with the most immature one of all. "We're performing in the White House! The President's gonna be there and everything! You can't tell me that's not an amazing opportunity for a young guy like me!"

"It is an amazing opportunity, regardless of age. But you lose opportunities when you break the rules. You're not going."

"But -- but we're also gonna go see the capitol, take in all that history. And it's not just us! Our little brother Frankie's coming too and Stella Malone and Macy Misa. They were all so excited about learning."

"You're friends were going to go with you?" Angeletti asked but before Joe could pounce on his moment of weakness Angeletti went on. "Then they will just have to suffer for your mistake with you. No! No more begging. I have work to do and you have classes to get to. Goodbye, Mr. Lucas. I trust you'll stay out of trouble."

"Yes, sir," Joe muttered. He shuffled out of the office.

"I'm sorry, Joe," Stella said, lacing her fingers between his and nudging him comfortingly in the side.

"It's okay," Joe said, squeezing Stella's hand. He led the slow, sad procession down the hallway. "It's no one's fault. If that harda--"

"Miss Misa!"

"Eep!" Macy gasped. Everyone turned to look at her, each wondering the same thing: what could Macy have done wrong?

"May I see you in my office?" Angeletti asked.

"Yes, sir," Macy said sadly.

The bell rang, summoning the others to class as Angeletti spun on his heel back towards the office. Macy's friends gave her encouraging half-smiles. Kevin couldn't quite manage one but pulled her into a quick hug before letting her go. She gave him a genuine smile and followed behind Angeletti.

"Did you need something, sir?" Macy asked when Angeletti had settled himself in the office and still given her no sign of why she was there.

"You're on almost every sports team in the school, Miss Misa."

"Yes, sir," Macy said with a frown. If Angeletti was going to say something about it being against the rules to be on more than X number of teams she was going to throw a Himalayas-sized fit.

"And each team you're on does markedly better once you join. Your coaches say you're not just a great athlete, you're also an amazing team-builder."

"Thank you?" Macy said, not quite sure where this was going.

"But I see one team you were approached to join but never did."

Macy's frown deepened as she wracked her brain, trying to remember -- no! He couldn't mean --

"I'm sure the chess team could have benefited from your help."

Macy felt the blood drain from her face. "Sir, I'm not so sure. I mean, it's _chess_, it's not like throwing a ball through a hoop or hitting a target. I'm a natural athlete, those are the sorts of things I'm naturally good at --"

"And so is chess. At least according to you permanent record. The teachers in your old school district seem to think you were --" He glanced down at the open folder on his desk -- "'a talented player with a natural gift for the game of chess.'" He looked expectantly up at her.

"I would really rather _not_ join the chess team, sir. I don't enjoy it." She'd only played in elementary school because that jerk Timmy Sanberg had pulled her pigtails. He'd been the reigning chess champ of the classroom -- only because no one else played -- and she'd enjoyed putting him in his place during recess that day. If she'd known beating him at his own game would mean being forced to play students in other classes, then in other grades, then in whole other schools, she would have just let the pigtail thing slide. She'd been happy when her family moved and she got to go to a new school where no one knew she was good at chess -- until now anyway.

"We're playing Lupine Prep on Saturday," Angeletti went on, not seeming to care about her opinion of the game. "I'm sure the team could benefit from your experience."

"I understand, but I'd really rather --"

"Of course, it'll be hard for me to watch you defeat those Lupines if I have to keep an eye on the Saturday detention crowd."

Macy's whole body seemed to shudder though it remained perfectly still. Was the principal seriously trying to extort her?

When she didn't say anything he elaborated. "And since there's only one person in Saturday detention right now, I'd probably just let him off the hook with a light warning. If you did play of course."

Macy's hands clenched at her sides. She had _never_ wanted to physically harm an adult before but right now it was taking all of her will-power not to leap across the table and show Angeletti what a person with seven MVP trophies in her room could do! But, even if she did vent her considerable anger, that still left her friends at home on Saturday.

Macy unclenched her hands and hung her head.

"I'll play."

* * *

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	4. Chapter 4

AN: This chapter has absolutely no clues in it, so I'm giving you one here. The original parallel that inspired me to write this was that in the classic one of the main problems is two people getting into trouble together, but only one of them being punished. In this case, only Joe is punished for the mistake that both he and Stella made.

**A Little Bad**

The usual shuffle between third and fourth period that day was broken by Joe Lucas racing down the hallway yelling, "Freeeeeeedoooooommmmm!"

Joe's pronouncement stopped when he reached Stella's locker, where he grabbed Stella and spun her around, dancing a chaotic waltz in the middle of the hallway. Stella laughed, pulling away from him.

"Joe! What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm free! Angeletti let me off the hook! We're going to Washington!" He pulled her back into the dance and this time she went along with him, half-hugging him in her joy.

"Oh my gosh!" she cried. "I have to tell Macy!" She ran away, leaving Joe standing alone on his personal dance floor. He frowned after her for a moment before running off to tell his brothers and to call his dad.

"Maaaaaaaccccyyyyyy!" Stella yelled. She reached her friend's locker and had to grab onto Macy to slow herself down, sending them both spinning.

"What is it?" Macy asked when they'd finally stopped.

"We're going to Washington! Joe's off the hook!"

"Oh."

"Mace," Stella said, finally noticing Macy's frown. "What happened? Did Angeletti give you detention? Do I have to destroy the world of fashion? Because I would do that for you, Macy," she said seriously.

"No," Macy said, forcing a smile. "I just found out I have a game on Saturday."

"A game? Macy, I know how you are about sports but the coach will let you off to go to Washington!"

Macy shook her head. "No, it's okay. You go without me. Bring me back a fake Declaration of Independence?"

"Just like in _National Treasure_," Stella said.

Macy nodded and hurried towards her next class. Stella watched her go, not believing for a second that Macy was doing the right thing. She was going to fix this.

* * *

"I need your help."

Nick jumped and came back to the ground gripping the edges of his locker. "Jeez, Stella! You scared me half to death! What do you need my help with? Did Joe ruin the trip again?"

"No. Macy did. She's not coming."

Nick frowned. He knew Stella really wanted Macy to come and that it had made his parents happy for reasons he didn't want to think about too deeply, but he'd never really been too excited. Sure, Macy was fun and she was his friend, but none of his other friends got to come with them on band business -- unless they were like Stella and worked for the band, but she didn't count for just that reason. And anyway, having Stella come caused it's own special brand of trouble. She and Joe would inevitably get into a fight of some sort and chaos would ensue. Nick didn't think Macy and Kevin would get into a fight -- neither of them was quite admitting to liking each other yet and their denial wasn't anywhere near the self-destructive level that Stella and Joe's was -- but he also knew that two people in a non-relationship-relationship always led to trouble. It was only a matter of time.

But he couldn't tell Stella any of this. If he did, she'd want to gush about Kevin and Macy, then she'd be mad at him for implying she had feelings for Joe, and _then _she'd be furious with him for thinking love was a reason to keep Macy from coming. So instead he only said, "Really? Why not?" in a tone of mild interest.

"She claims to have a game on Saturday."

Nick opened his mouth to point out that with all of Macy's sports teams it was not only possible, but very probable that she had a game.

Stella cut him off. "And I know she could very easily have a game, but this is Washington, D.C.! Any one of her coaches would want her to go! Plus, I already checked with all the girls' coaches. They say there's no game that day that Macy's supposed to be in."

"So what do you need my help for?" Nick asked, very worried about where this was going.

"I need you to go ask the guys' coaches what sport Macy's supposed to be playing this weekend."

"Why can't you --?"

"They're guys, Nick! Their offices are in the _guys'_ locker room! Now go. I'll be waiting here for your report."

"My report?" Nick echoed, but Stella's no-nonsense look left him no choice. He hurried towards the locker room, wondering how hard it would be to convince the guys they needed a new stylist. Ten minutes later he returned, his stomach rumbling from putting off his lunch.

"Well?" Stella asked. Sure enough, he'd found her standing right beside his locker.

Nick grimaced. "Well … none of them have Macy playing on Saturday either."

He was surprised and a bit frightened when Stella only nodded. Apparently she'd been expecting this turn of events.

"Okay, now I need --"

"No!" Nick said, holing up his hands to ward her off. "I am not getting involved in one of your crazy plans. Go get Joe if you want a sidekick."

"I can't use Joe," Stella said as if Nick was several more than two points away from being a genius. "Joe can't be covert. He's Joe. But you, Nick," she said sweetly, sliding an arm around his shoulders and steering him down the hall, "are the quiet one, the responsible one. No one will ever expect you of skulduggery."

"I'm not getting out of this, am I?" Nick asked.

"Nope. Now go to Macy's locker and poke around. Here's her combination. I'll go grill Macy for intel on her supposed 'game.'"

"Stella, could you please not pretend you're Michael Weston? Don't say words like 'intel.'"

Stella patted him on the back. "I'm gonna go have some yogurt. Have fun and don't get caught."

* * *

Macy brought her tray over to the lunch table where Kevin was currently guarding the free seats with every bit of his body he could get to reach.

"Can I sit here?" Macy asked.

Kevin looked up. He was on his side, curled into a C shape so he could reach around the benches with his arms and legs. "Yes!" he said gladly and resumed his seat across from her.

"Where is everyone?" Macy asked as she sat.

"I have no idea," Kevin said. "You don't think they all got in trouble with Angeletti? First Joe and now Stella and Nick …"

"Didn't you hear?" Macy asked. "Joe's off the hook. Angeletti changed his mind."

"Really? That's great! Now we can all go to D.C.!" Kevin said brightly. "But they could still be in trouble _now_. Angeletti's mean like that."

"No," Macy said, deciding she didn't want to be the one to break it to him that she wasn't coming, "I'm sure the others are fine." If they _had _gotten in trouble she'd be giving Angeletti a piece of her mind. She wasn't about to play a game she hated just to have the jerk give her friends detention anyway.

"I hope so." He lowered his voice and leaned across the table. "But I am glad they're not around."

"Why?" Macy asked, surprised.

"Because I want to talk to you about Mr. Piebald. He really loves the ball and he said to thank you for the kibble you got him."

Macy grinned, her bad mood evaporating. She'd carried the ball to school herself on Monday and then hidden it in her football helmet so no one -- namely Joe, Stella, or Nick -- would think twice about the odd-shaped lump in her backpack. The kibble she'd picked up in the pet store that weekend as an extra gift for the little guy.

"Tell him he's welcome," she said. "I'm glad he likes it."

"I was actually worried he'd eat too much of it, like the goldfish Dad got me for my sixth birthday. How much is too much for a hamster?"

"I have no idea," Macy said honestly. "But I know where we can find out. You wanna go to the library this afternoon?"

"Sure! Did you bring your car or --"

"Oh, I can't come right after school," Macy said stiffly. "I have practice."

Kevin frowned. Macy was usually excited about practice. She'd once had the chance to see them record a new single and been more than happy to miss it to run drills with the ping-pong team, but the way she said the word now sounded like she was being punished.

"Well, I can wait around if you want."

Macy shook her head and stood, taking her half-full tray as she did. "No, I'm not sure how long it'll go. I'll call you when I'm done." She hurried to dump her uneaten food in the trash and Kevin watched her go, unsure what had just happened. Stella entered the room just as Macy reached the open doors and stopped mid-hello when Macy kept going. Stella gave Kevin a "what was that about?" look. Kevin shrugged, watching Macy's head bob down the hallway in worry. His worry increased when Stella took two steps towards him, then stopped, a look of horror crossing her face. The next second Stella was running down the hall after Macy.

Kevin wondered where his brothers were and if they would have a better idea of what was up with the girls.

* * *

Stella took a shortcut through the (thankfully unoccupied) chemistry classroom and beat Macy to her locker. She pulled Nick away, quickly set Macy's belongings in something approaching order, and dragged Nick down the hall and around the corner.

"What are you doing?" Nick demanded.

Stella slapped her hand over his mouth and leaned cautiously around the corner. When Macy was gone she sighed in relief and released Nick.

"Did you find anything?" she asked.

Nick gaped at her. All that and no explanation whatsoever? He was definitely not looking forward to having Stella for a sister-in-law and he didn't even want to think about what she'd be like as his future kids' aunt.

"No," he said with a shrug. "Just her school books, a small umbrella, and a travel chess set -- I was wondering about that. Does she play or does she just use it for checkers like Kevin and Joe, 'cause if she does play I'd really like to…" He trailed off, seeing Stella's worried expression. "Is something wrong? Was the umbrella a clue that I just totally didn't understand?"

Stella walked away, lost in her thoughts. Nick watched her and decided it might be best if he took his future children to some foreign country where they wouldn't see their aunt so often.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 5

AN: It turns out there's a canon vice principal. You can repress him like I did (I blame Detention girl, she was so annoying that I repressed the whole episode) or you can pretend that he changed his name for reasons unknown. Either way it works.

AN2: A new clue! Both this and the classic have three word titles and the title of this is taken from the classic.

**A Little Bad**

"What do you mean I have to get a ride with Kevin?" Joe asked. Stella, who was currently half-buried in the recesses of her car trunk, pushed her emergency kit into his chest. Joe caught it and added a "Well?" for good measure.

Stella emerged holding a thermal blanket in her arms. She beat it a couple times to get the dust and random fibers off before throwing it over her shoulder and taking the emergency kit back from Joe. "Just what I said. You have to get a ride from Kevin, I'm staying after school."

"But Kevin drives like an old lady!"

"Nick seems to handle it," Stella said, putting the kit back in place and slamming the trunk closed. Joe jumped back.

"Why can't I just wait around for you?" Joe asked, following Stella into the school.

"Because this is girl business. Now hurry up before you miss Kevin and have to take the bus."

Joe followed her up the steps to the school, preparing another argument.

"Fangirls take the bus," Stella said over her shoulder.

Joe ran back into the parking lot, desperate to find his brother's car amid the quickly departing stream of students.

Stella shook her head with a giggle and continued into the school. She wasn't in a hurry. If she was right she had at least an hour before anything important happened. She planned on spending that time staking out her target's current location and doing some English homework.

With the trip to Washington she was tempted to put off her reading until then. Whenever she went on a trip with the guys she brought along whatever novel she was supposed to be reading, figuring she could use the travel time to catch up. But somehow she always ended up in an argument with Joe or trying to out-logic Nick so he didn't get a big head or comforting Kevin about that squirrel the tour bus may or may not have hit. So this time she would get the reading done early.

She went to her locker to grab her book and had to run through the combination twice when she missed the last number. She muttered angrily at herself, she hated when she did that. This time she turned the dial slowly, not wanting to mess up again. As she did she became aware of someone standing at the end of the hall.

She glanced up and realized it was an adult. The woman wore a baseball cap so Stella figured she was one of the coaches, which would also explain why she looked so familiar. She was looking at the bulletin board next to the administration offices. It was usually where announcements of upcoming events or reminders about rules that were suddenly being broken a bit too often were posted, but now it was filled with Angeletti's warnings. The teacher was probably trying to remember all the new things she was supposed to punish kids for.

The teacher slowly looked up at Stella and gave her a small smile. She returned it, figuring teachers needed support these days just as much as the students did, and closed her locker before heading further into the school to wait out the afternoon.

* * *

Macy hurried out of chess practice, not wanting to stay and talk to any of her new teammates. She'd already beaten half of them during the hour long practice and while they'd all taken it well and from her limited prior acquaintances with them she knew they were perfectly nice people, but they were tainted by chess and she really didn't want to think about the game any more than was necessary. When she left the classroom they used for practice though, she froze. Stella was sitting on a blanket on the floor against the lockers, reading _Macbeth_ for English.

"How'd you know?" Macy asked.

Stella looked up sharply. She gave Macy a weak smile and climbed to her feet while Macy's new teammates filed out of the room and down the hall. Once they were gone Stella said, "I had Nick break into your locker. He found a chess set in there."

"Yeah, Mr. Paulson gave it to me. He likes the team to practice whenever they get a chance."

"Okay, I'm kind of confused," Stella said, forcing a light tone. "See, I thought I was coming here to tell my best friend that she's allowed to suddenly do a 180 and start liking things she used to hate, it doesn't matter to me -- you could even decide you've fallen in love with acid wash jeans and Crocs and I will still be your friend. But now I'm thinking my friend hasn't done a 180, which leaves me wondering what she's doing coming out of chess team practice?"

Macy let out an exhausted sigh and in it was all the answers Stella could have wanted.

"This is how Joe got off the hook, isn't it?" Stella asked, her voice hard. "That jerk made you do this to get him out of detention."

"Joe's not a jerk," Macy began.

"I'm not talking about Joe! Joe would never ask you to do this and if he knew you were he'd tell you to stop right now."

"No, Stella!" Macy said, grabbing her friend's hand. "I know the guys wouldn't want me to do this just so they can go to Washington --"

"But it won't just be so they can go to Washington!"

Macy overrode Stella's outburst with one of her own. "If I don't do this he's just going to keep hounding them!"

"And if you do this he's just going to keep making you! Do you really want to play this stupid game for the rest of high school?"

Macy looked away. "Please don't tell them. This sucks, I know, but if I don't do it my friends are gonna be hurt, there's no stopping that."

"We could tell Mr. Lucas--"

"No, we can't. He'll take it to the school board and it'll be my word against Angeletti's and they'll side with him because he's the adult. He won't get fired and then he'll go out of his way to punish the guys. I'm doing this Stella, you can't stop me. Promise me you won't tell them."

Stella looked at Macy a moment before wrapping her in a hug. Macy slowly lifted her arms to return the embrace.

"Do you wanna go to the batting cages? You can break a couple bats and I'll try not to scream."

Macy grinned. "No, I promised Kevin I'd go to the library with him, he should be here by now. Some other time though?"

"Definitely."

They pulled apart and Macy headed down the hall. Stella bent to gather her book and blanket and Macy called back to her, "Hey! You never promised!"

Stella sighed. Macy knew her all too well.

"I promise!" she called down the hallway.

"To?"

"I promise not to tell the guys about you playing chess even though you hate it and they'd want to know!"

"Thank you!"

Macy disappeared around the corner and Stella began folding her blanket up.

"Excuse me?"

Stella turned to see the teacher from before. She winced. "I know I shouldn't be in school this late unless I have a practice or an extra class or something but I had a really good reason. Could you please not turn me in to Angeletti?"

The teacher chuckled. "He can't be that bad."

"Are you kidding? He's a dictator. He reformed the dress code, banned music outside the band room, told the jocks they couldn't bring sports equipment into the hallways unless they were on their way to or from a game or practice, and today I found out that he's threatening to give my friends detention to get my other friend to join a team she hates! The man is evil."

"Really?" the woman said seriously. "Why don't you tell me all about it?"

* * *

When Kevin came up the stairs Joe glanced up and gave the trash bag in his hands an extra-harsh twist for good measure before tying it off.

"Look who finally decided to show up," he said.

Kevin paused, looking between his brothers. Their room had gone from messy-but-still-functional to pristine in the hours he'd been gone. Kevin's eyes widened. What if they'd found Mr. Piebald?

"Wha - what's up, guys?" he said cautiously, setting down his backpack near his bed. He wasn't looking at his brothers, but instead at every single corner and shadowed spot in the room, hoping to find his hamster.

"We had to clean the whole room, that's what!" Joe snapped. "Mom wants the house to be all spic and span when we get back from D.C. Nick! You wanna help me yell at --" Joe turned and realized Nick was inside the sound booth, cleaning the windows. "Oh. Well, he can yell at you later. What are you doing under my bed?"

Kevin leapt up. "Nothing!"

Joe rolled his eyes at the absurdly high pitch of Kevin's pronouncement. "Anyway, where were you?"

"I was at the library with Macy."

"Why didn't you tell us? You could have given her the football helmet!"

"Why would I need to give one to her? She already has one."

"Exactly! And she left it here last night!"

Nick opened the door to the sound booth just then and gave Kevin the Lucas brothers' signal for "he's being crazy, just humor him."

"O-kay," Kevin said. "Give me the helmet and I'll give it to her tomorrow."

Joe seethed. "I already put it in my backpack 'cause Mom was getting so freaked that it was still sitting out. I'll give it to her."

Nick chuckled. "You just want the excuse to talk to Stella in the morning."

Though Joe blushed he had the decency to admit, "Since when do I need an excuse?"

"I'm sorry about the helmet," Kevin said honestly while arching his neck for a better view under the couches from where he stood.

"Whatever," Joe said, "as long as you do the rest of the cleaning. That means --" He looked around the room and found there was nothing left to be done, so he shoved the trash bag he held into Kevin's arms. "You get to face the fans outside. Have fun."

Kevin shrugged. He'd done it once before, he could do it again.

"Kev!" Nick called and jogged across the room to punch a few keys on the Stellavator. "Why don't you change into one of your old uniforms first? Stella can't complain if something you're never gonna wear again gets torn apart."

"She totally can," Joe said while Kevin pulled off his shirt.

Kevin didn't pay attention while his brothers debated the depth of Stella's insanity. He was too worried about Mr. Piebald. The poor little guy was probably scared out of his mind after all the banging around that was sure to have happened while the guys cleaned. That meant he was hiding, but where? There were only so many places that ball could fit without being noticed. He knew he should have put him back in his cage before he left to pick up Macy but he'd been so excited and Mr. Piebald liked it so much in there! Plus, Nick and Joe were usually clueless and the room was a mess so there was little chance he'd be noticed rolling around.

He tucked his shirt into his pants, more from force of habit than a desire not to give the fans anything loose to grab onto, and turned to his brothers.

"No way!" Joe said. "Stella would never torture someone with rats like in _1984_. The rats would eat the clothes."

"But you admit she'd torture someone for crimes against fashion?"

"It depends on the crime and just how Orwellian the world would have gotten by that point."

"Guys!" Kevin yelled. "If you --" he paused, glanced at Joe, "Did you just say 'Orwellian'?"

"What?" Joe asked, looking between his two brothers. "I know things!"

Nick shook his head. "What did you want, Kev? A last request before you face the fans?"

"If you see anything … weird -- rolling -- around the room, could you just not touch it?"

"Weird?" Joe echoed.

"Rolling?" Nick asked.

"Yeah. Don't touch it. Thanks." Kevin sped down the stairs before they could question him further.

After several seconds a faint squeaking could be heard. Both knew it was most likely the front door but still, better safe than sorry.

"Hey," Nick said, "how about while Kevin's distracting the fans out front we go out back and head anywhere but here?"

"Sounds good to me!" Joe said.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 6

AN: I love this chapter. I had forgotten, but while editing it I remembered how much fun it was. So I hope the rest of you enjoy it too. As for a clue, technically there's another plot-equivalent in this chapter, but I'll give you one anyway. Angeletti's character-equivalent is named Angelo (huh, I wonder where I got his name from).

**A Little Bad**

Stella snuck into the atrium and sat beside Macy, wrapping one arm around her best friend's shoulders.

"How you holding up?"

Macy sighed. "Okay. I mean, I should be happy. We're gonna clobber Lupine Prep, which I _love_ doing. They're like our West High."

"They really are," Stella agreed with a smile. "But …"

"But I _hate_ chess. So it's more of a draw than anything."

"Are you sure I can't tell the --" Stella's phone went off and she jumped, digging into her bag so viciously Macy figured she must be expecting a call from Joe. Which, Macy thought as Stella read the text, was weird since they should probably have seen each other already this morning.

"Was it Joe?" Macy asked as Stella slipped the phone back into her bag.

"What? No. Nothing. It was just a text."

"Yeah," Macy said with a chuckle, "but from who?"

"Oh. Joe. Anyway, are you sure I can't tell the guys about Angeletti?"

Macy blinked and wondered for the first time if the school uniforms might be part of a plot to replace the student body with pod people and make it less conspicuous when Stella stopped being fashionable. She shook her head, whatever was going on with Stella would have to wait.

"No! And don't you dare go behind my back and tell them while I'm gone."

"Gone?" Stella echoed.

"The track meet? I have to miss the last half of the school day because of it."

"Oh yeah. Sorry, Mace, things have just been so crazy lately."

"I get it," Macy said. "Have you seen the guys around? It's almost first period and I really wanted to spend at least some time with them today."

"No, and they're usually not this late. They should have at least called or something by now."

The pod people theory was becoming more and more likely. Before Macy could ask Stella's opinion on what Shane Gray was wearing in his latest video the bell rang, summoning them to class.

Macy sighed. "I guess I'll have to catch them between classes."

"Yeah," Stella said and stood, holding her arms out to give Macy a hug.

Macy shook her head. "The 'no inappropriate touching' rule has been extended to hugging."

"Seriously?" Stella asked, dropping her arms to her sides.

"That's what I heard anyway. I'll see you later?"

"Definitely."

Stella didn't see Macy again that day and by the time lunch rolled around was sorry to say she'd missed her best friend entirely. She knew what had probably happened. Macy's first period teacher was the chess coach, so he'd probably kept her after and then the routes between their second and third period classes were on opposite sides of the school. And then between third and fourth Stella had gotten into a debate with her English teacher about her bad grade.

That was it. Next semester, she was changing her schedule so she had a few more classes with her best friend.

Of course, all of that reasoning still didn't explain where the boys had been all day.

"Where were you?" Stella asked, sitting down at the boys' table.

The three groaned in unison and Stella noticed that none of them seemed able to sit up properly or open their eyes fully.

"What happened?" she asked more gently.

"Mom made us clean our room," Nick said, "and somehow one of the remotes found its way into Joe's bed."

"I said I was sorry," Joe said.

"We heard you the hundredth time, bro," Kevin said.

Nick continued, "He rolled over onto it in the middle of the night and started up the theater system. Then he somehow turned the volume up to its maximum."

"Oh, Joe," Stella said, rubbing his back comfortingly.

"That woke the whole house up," Kevin said. "By the time we actually found the remote to shut it off we were all wide awake. Nick had accidentally shut off the alarm, thinking that was the noise when he first woke up, so between midnight milk and cookies with Mom, Dad, and Frankie and no alarm we barely made it to first period on time."

"Speak for yourself," Joe said. "I was late to PE because it took me too long to dress out. Coach made me stay after and do laps so I was late to second period _and_ I left my backpack in the locker by mistake so I've been having to borrow supplies."

"Why didn't you just go back and get it after second period?" Stella asked.

"Van Dyke is Coach Axel's TA during third," Nick said.

Stella rolled her eyes. Joe really needed to get over his hatred of Van Dyke.

"But I have it now," Joe said as if that proved some point, and pulled it from beneath the table. "Where's Macy? She left her football helmet at our house."

"Oh, she's gone."

"Gone?" Kevin asked.

"She has a track meet today. The bus probably just left."

"Dang," Joe muttered. "I really don't wanna have to carry this thing around anymore."

"You haven't been carrying it around _at all_," Nick pointed out. "It was in the locker room, remember?"

"Give it to me," Stella said, hoping to put this to rest as quickly as possible. "I still have that extra locker. I can put it in there and give it to Macy tomorrow."

Joe unzipped his backpack and pulled the helmet out. He handed it to Stella and the moment both of their hands were touching it a tiny rodent head popped out.

"Mr. Piebald!" Kevin yelled at the same moment Stella let out a shriek.

Joe, driven by instincts passed down to him by his forgotten medieval knight ancestors, threw the helmet into the air in an effort to protect his fair maiden. Stella scrambled away from the table as the helmet came crashing down on Nick's plate, sending splatters of gravy and spinach surprise onto all three boys' uniforms.

Kevin grabbed for the helmet but by the time he got it Mr. Piebald had already crawled out and begun searching frantically for a new hiding place. Kevin scrambled under the table after him, as did Joe, who was still following his chivalrous instincts. Being the only brother with no one he loved in current danger, Nick hurried to stand beside Stella. He noted sadly that Van Dyke was comforting her and knew he was in for a night full of rants from Joe.

"You're scaring him!" Kevin cried while he and Joe crawled after Mr. Piebald, who was on his way to another, less screaming lunch table.

"Well _he's _scaring _Stella_!" Joe snapped and kept going.

Students scattered as they approached and the brothers split up, going opposite directions around the table. Mr. Piebald ran towards a pair of green sneakers, the owner of which jumped onto her chair. Unable to stop on the slick tiled floor Mr. Piebald skidded into Joe's waiting hands.

"Got him!" Joe declared, climbing to his feet and holding the hamster over his head like a trophy.

"Very good, Mr. Lucas. And can you explain why you thought it wise to bring a hamster to school in the first place?" Angeletti asked.

* * *

This day could not get any worse. A meteor striking the planet could only help. That was how epically bad Joe's day was. He'd been late to school, had to run extra laps in gym, had to go three classes without supplies because of stupid Van Dyke, been attacked by a hamster, been dragged to the principal's office, and, to top it all off, he had to endure seeing Van Dyke comfort Stella!

Of course, since he'd been hugging her Angeletti had dragged them into his office too. So at least Joe knew Van Dyke wasn't still comforting her, the lug was too worried about his spot on the football team to bother. But since they were all trapped under Angeletti's withering gaze Joe couldn't comfort her either, which left him to wonder what had happened in the few minutes he'd been chasing the hamster (who had also been taken to the office and was on the desk in a frog terrarium borrowed from the science supply closet).

Joe almost wished Angeletti would start yelling at them as images of Van Dyke and Stella assaulted his helpless brain. Van Dyke hugging Stella. Van Dyke brushing the spinach off Stella's cheek. Van Dyke leaning slowly closer to Stella. Van Dyke kissing Stella!

Joe whirled to give Van Dyke his best glare.

"Detention," Angeletti said, catching all three students' attention. "This Saturday. All three of you."

"WHAT?" the three cried.

Van Dyke slumped back into his seat, seeming to take the punishment in stride, while Joe and Stella began arguing.

"We've got a concert on Saturday!" Joe said. "It's too late to cancel on the President now!"

"You can't do this! If you do this we'll lose on Saturday!" Stella cried.

"Whoa! You've gotta cancel on the President?" Van Dyke asked. "Dude," he said to Angeletti, "you can_not_ make them do that!"

"What do you mean we'll lose on Saturday?" Joe asked, turning to Stella.

Stella gave Joe a helpless look before turning back to Angeletti. "You know we will!" she insisted.

"Maybe," Angeletti said, "maybe not. Regardless, I will see you all bright and early on Saturday morning."

Joe let his head fall back in defeat. He was right back where he had been two days ago.

"What about the hamster?" came a muffled voice through the door.

Angeletti came around his desk and pulled the door open, revealing Kevin, who smiled sheepishly. "The hamster will be donated to the science department. I'm sure they can find some use for it."

"But --" Kevin began.

"Out," Angeletti ordered. "All of you. And please, try not to get in any more trouble."

They filed out and Joe made a face at the closed door. "Try not to get into any more trouble," he imitated.

"I'm sorry, man," Van Dyke said, slapping him on the back. "Stells? See you Saturday. I'll bring you a mochaccino? Kay, I gotta go tell Coach I'm still on for Friday's game."

Van Dyke jogged down the hall and Joe turned to Stella.

"You let him call you _Stells_? I'm the only one who gets to call you Stells!"

"Can we focus please!" Nick demanded. "You just got detention for Saturday! Again! How are we gonna tell Dad?"

"It looks like we won't have to," Kevin said hopefully. Stella had her phone out and was texting rapidly.

"What?" she asked when she felt their eyes on her.

"Are you telling our Dad?" Joe asked hopefully.

"Oh? No. I -- I have to go." She hurried away.

"Hey!" Joe called after her. "I'm not done yelling at you for letting Van Dyke use my nickname for you!" He ran after her, intent on finishing their argument.

"Not it!" Nick yelled suddenly.

"Huh?" Kevin asked.

"Not it," Nick repeated calmly. "You have to call Dad and tell him."

"What? But -- but I want to live!"

"Come on, Kev, you're the first born. You have a special place in Dad's heart."

"Yeah, but he also has three backups to take that special place after I die."

"Will it help if I promise to make you cookies once we get home?"

"Maybe."

* * *

_reviews = love_


	7. Chapter 7

AN:_starfishbeliever_ and _Darkchilde_ guessed the classic correctly! YAY! Congratulations! Your prizes are ... um ... the satisfaction of a job well-done? That's really all I've got. Anyway, I won't say what the classic is yet in case anyone really wants to figure it out for themselves. But if you want to know what the classic is, just go read their reviews for chapter six. I'll stick with my plan to reveal the classic at the end of the last chapter (which is the next one) so if you're just too lazy to check but still want to know you can find out then.

**A Little Bad**

"You got detention **again**?" Tom bellowed.

Frankie chuckled. "You guys are in so much trouble."

"Don't taunt your brothers, Frankie," Tom muttered. "How could you get detention again? You barely got out of it the last time!"

Joe shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the dining room table. "Kevin's hamster was scaring Stella," he said, not quite looking his father in the eye.

Tom turned slowly to face Kevin. "Since when does Kevin have a hamster?"

"I couldn't help it!" Kevin cried. "He was so cute and helpless and he needed a home! How was I supposed to know he would cause so much trouble?" He buried his face in his hands, wishing he could disappear.

Tom rolled his shoulders back with a sigh. He looked to Nick, who only shrugged and continued his work making the cookies he'd promised Kevin. The four boys watched as their father began pacing from the firemen poles to the door.

"I can't believe this. You're playing at the White House in less than three days! I told you boys to be on your best behavior. What happened? How hard is it to not get in trouble for one week?"

"Um, no you didn't, Dad," Nick pointed out. "You never told us to be on our best behavior."

"Well I should have! And you three should have known that I should have and acted as if I had!"

"And it's not our fault!" Kevin said. "Angeletti's evil!"

"No one's evil, Kevin," Tom said. His phone went off and as he pulled it from inside his coat pocket he lifted his eyes to the heavens and muttered, "Please let this be the White House calling to cancel. _Please._" He put the phone to his ear and said, "Tom Lucas here." He sagged down into one of the chairs around the table as the person on the other end spoke. "Listen if this is part of some harebrained -- … Oh. Well, I was just going to say I was all for it, so this is actually even better. Be safe."

Tom ended the call and returned the phone to his coat pocket, glancing around the room at his sons as he did so. He shrugged, said, "Okay," and went upstairs.

Joe stared at the now empty chair as if his father would suddenly reappear there, angry at them once more. "What just happened? Was Dad not just yelling at us?"

"Maybe that _was_ the White House calling to cancel," Kevin said hopefully.

Frankie scoffed while Nick said, "If it was he'd have said something."

"But what could have --" Joe gestured wildly at the chair with both hands -- "done _that!_"

"No clue," Nick said and began spooning dough onto cookie sheets. "Whatever it was though, let's hope it was good news."

* * *

"Oh no," Macy said as she descended the steps of the school bus. Even though she'd just run over three miles she still jogged to where Stella was sitting, nestled close to the railing on the stairs leading up to the school. "What happened?"

Stella looked up from _Macbeth_, clearly startled. She'd been too interested in the whole walking forest thing to hear the bus arrive. "Oh," she said, sliding her bookmark into place and tucking the book into her bag, "that hamster you and Kevin have been secretly keeping ended up crashing lunch." Stella fully enjoyed the look of shock and horror on Macy's face. She lifted her arm and Macy pulled her up. "Thanks. Long story short, Angeletti's giving Piebald to the science department and Joe, Kevin, Van Dyke, and I have detention on Saturday."

"WHAT?" Macy cried.

Stella put a comforting hand on Macy's shoulder. "Don't worry, everything's gonna be okay."

The look on Macy's face was one she reserved for long-standing rivalries and state championships. Even though Stella was standing several steps higher than Macy was, she couldn't help but feel small compared to her friend.

"How?" Macy demanded.

Stella stepped down and put her arm around Macy's shoulders. "I have a plan. A good one!" she added at Macy's incredulous look. "And phase one requires one of two things."

"Why do I think I'm not going to like either of these things?" Macy asked as they walked slowly down the stairs.

"I'm the one who doesn't like one of them. The first option involves me flirting with Bobby Warbley," Stella said with a shudder.

"Bobby Warbley?" Macy asked, equally horrified. "He's the president of the AV Club which, usually, I wouldn't be so down on, but he embodies every negative stereotype there is about nerds. Including the bad fashion sense."

"I know," Stella said shortly. "But these are desperate times. Option two though," she said with a bright smile that worried Macy, "only requires you to call one little phone number."

"Why do I have to call it?"

"Because you're the only one I know -- and can speak to without wanting to kill -- who has it."

Macy stopped at the foot of the stairs and pulled out of Stella's embrace, crossing her arms over her chest. "Who's number?"

Stella's Cheshire grin did nothing to quell the foreboding in the pit of Macy's stomach.

* * *

The entire school seemed dour on Thursday. The news that someone had been punished, unpunished, and then punished again had everyone down. No one was safe and everyone seemed afraid to get on Angeletti's bad side. The halls were eerily silent, with students shuffling to their classes in near silence, some even too afraid to close their lockers because of how loud it would be.

"This is insane," Joe hissed, watching Van Dyke help a freshman get his locker closed without slamming it.

"Yes, it is," Nick said, jotting down a line on a notepad.

"Dude!" Joe snapped, his voice sharp in the quiet hallway.

"What?" Nick asked, glancing around in annoyance as if fearing Angeletti would spring from the lockers to give Joe a double detention for being overly loud.

"You're writing a song about this? While our people are suffering?"

Nick let the full force of his "seriously?" look settle on Joe before saying, "I'm recording Angeletti's offenses. He's struck fear into the heart of the student body -- and not in the cool Batman way. I'm going to present my evidence to the school board at their meeting tonight."

"You're going to a school board meeting?"

"If it'll stop this, yes."

Kevin wandered down the hall towards them, casting confused glances over his shoulders as he came.

"Looking for Angeletti, Kev?" Nick asked, pen poised over his notepad.

"No," Kevin said, frowning seriously. "I just thought I saw someone really familiar by the administration offices."

"You mean like one of the hundreds of students we go to school with and see every day?" Joe asked.

Kevin either didn't understand the dig or didn't think it worth responding to. "No, they're everyday-familiar, this guy was once-in-a-while-familiar."

"Could it have been someone who works at the school?" Nick asked.

"No, he was wearing a uniform."

"So he _was_ a student?" Joe asked.

Kevin sighed and leaned against the lockers. "No. I don't think so. This is gonna bug me."

"Psst!" someone nearby hissed. "No loitering!"

Nick smiled down the hall at Emma. "Thanks," he mouthed and pulled his brothers towards the offices. "Come on, maybe we can find your mystery man and ask him who he is."

Student traffic decreased dramatically as they neared the offices until the three were alone in the hall.

"There's no one here," Joe said.

"It was worth a sho--"

"Is that Stella?" Joe asked sharply, pushing Nick aside to get a better view of the blonde head of hair just visible around the nearest corner. The head turned at the noise, just enough that Joe was certain that was Stella's profile. He speed walked past the slowly opening door to Angeletti's office just as she disappeared from view.

"That's not gonna go well," Nick sighed.

"Neither is that," Kevin said, looking and sounding like he'd just found out the original Lassie had died over half a century ago.

Nick paled as well when he saw who was coming out of Angeletti's office: Macy.

"What happened?" Kevin asked, coming up behind her.

"Whoa!" she cried, jumping around and clutching her chest. "Don't do that! You scared me half to death!"

"Good thing she wasn't holding any sports equipment," Nick muttered, feeling the need to fill the sarcasm void since Joe was gone in search of Stella. Kevin elbowed him. Hard.

"Did you get in trouble?" Kevin asked with a sympathetic wince.

"Kind of," Macy said, not meeting his eyes.

"Are you still gonna be able to play on Saturday?"

The corners of Macy's mouth pulled up slightly. "We'll see."

Nick and Kevin exchanged confused glances. Macy didn't usually act so weird and Kevin had never seen that look on her face. Of course, if she _had_ gotten detention and been forced to sit out Saturday's game, she was probably really mad. And holding in that anger would explain her strange behavior.

"Well," Kevin said cautiously, "if we both have detention we could sit next to each other."

Macy's strange look faded to a happy blush. "Really?"

"Yeah. It could even be fun!"

The bell rang through the hall and Macy muttered something the boys couldn't hear before rushing to her first class.

Once she was gone Nick punched Kevin lightly in the arm.

"What was that for?"

"Being a dork. Let's go before we're late and Angeletti gets another chance to punish the Lucas brothers."

* * *

"Stella!" Joe called. Stella was already turning another corner and Joe thought he saw her talking quietly to a guy as she did. That did it, Joe ran down the hall, his tennis shoes slipping on the slick floor when he turned the corner. "Stella!" Joe snapped.

Stella whirled around, letting the bathroom door fall from her hand. "Joe! Hi!"

Joe approached her cautiously. The hall was nothing but office windows on one side and science classes on the other with no lockers in sight, which meant no one had any reason to come this close to Angeletti. So what was Stella doing here?

"What are you doing here?"

Stella smiled at him the way she did when Frankie was acting younger than his years to get on her good side. "I go to school here, Joe."

"I mean in this hallway," Joe said. "And who were you talking to?"

"I wasn't talking to anyone."

Joe crossed his arms over his chest and did his best to stare Stella down. "I saw you walking with someone," he insisted. "A _guy_."

Stella's light expression faded instantly. "That's what this is about? Your stupid jealousy?"

"I'm not jealous! I'm just concerned for my best friend's heart and, as her best friend, feel that I have the duty to pass judgment over all possible suitors. I don't care if you're having some sort of secret rendezvous, but it would make my job easier if you'd just let me see the guy."

"First of all," Stella said, "to that whole passing judgment thing? No. Second of all, if I was having a secret rendezvous with a guy, why would he go in _there_?"

Joe glanced up at the circular placard on the door. "Oh," he said, gulping nervously. "Well, he could have gone into --" he stopped, realizing that the boys' and girls' bathrooms were at opposite ends of this particular hallway so any would-be suitor couldn't possibly have disappeared into the guys' bathroom quickly enough. "Sorry?" he said sheepishly.

The bell rang and Stella smiled at him sweetly. "It's okay, but you'd better get going before you're late again."

"I'll walk you to your next class," Joe said, offering her his arm.

"Uh, actually, Joe, I kind of need you to leave."

"Why?" Joe asked, his earlier suspicions rising up again.

Stella pointed over her shoulder. "So that I can go in there without you noticing."

"Oh. Sorry."

He hurried away and Stella ducked into the bathroom. Once the door had shut behind her she put her hands on her hips and met the eyes of the room's single occupant with a sigh. "That was close."

* * *

_reviews = love_


	8. Chapter 8

AN: I am REALLY sorry for taking so long with this. For some reason I couldn't get past the beginning of this chapter and it was a huge effort to even look at the story for a while. Then today I started again and it all just fell into place. I hope this was worth the wait. The name of the classic is at the end.

AN2: I've started creating a directory for all the JONAS stories on FFN. If you want to help compile all the necessary info or just to see where it's gonna be, the link is on my profile.

**A Little Bad**

The entire Lucas family sidled down the aisle of folding chairs, thankful they'd found room enough for them all to sit together.

"Don't worry, Dad," Nick said, "if this works we'll be able to go to Washington."

"Whatever," Tom muttered.

All four boys shot worried glances at their mother, who was no less confused. "Tom, honey," she said, "are you okay?"

"Fine."

"Really? Because I would have expected you to be freaking out right now."

"Eh," Tom said with a shrug.

"He's finally lost it," Joe said dully.

"He'll be okay," Kevin said. "Once Nick fixes this, everything will be back to normal. You _can_ fix it, right?"

"In theory," Nick said, flipping through the notebook where he'd recorded Angeletti's offenses.

"And it looks like you'll have help," Joe said. The room was nearly full of parents and students, most of whom Joe recognized as people who'd gotten in trouble over the past week. He spotted Van Dyke and grudgingly waved. At the moment, they were together in this.

The moment ended quickly however, when Stella walked in. Joe waved to her but she ignored him and took a seat near the back beside a guy wearing a trench coat and fedora. Who was that guy? Was that who Stella had been hiding that morning? He _knew_ she'd been up to something! And he was gonna find out what, he decided, rising to his feet in a spurt of righteous anger.

"What do you think you're doing?" Nick snapped, pulling Joe back into his seat. "They're starting."

Joe grunted in response.

The first half hour of the school board meeting was more boring that Mr. Smeltzer's history lectures. Soon enough Frankie was snoring quietly on Sandy's lap and Tom was playing Tetris on his phone. This only worried the boys more and Nick ran through his notes frantically one final time as the report on the quality of cafeteria food wound down.

"Hey," Kevin said quietly, nudging Joe in the arm.

"I know Stella's sitting at the back with some guy," Joe bit out, "you don't need to remind me."

Kevin awkwardly tried to turn in his seat. "Stella's with some guy?"

"Knock that off!" Joe hissed, smacking Kevin's shoulder. "If she sees you looking she'll think you're looking for me and then -"

"Oh my gosh," Nick said. "Would you just let Kevin say whatever he was going to say before you went all crazy?"

Joe folded his arms but shut up all the same. Nick nodded encouragingly to Kevin.

"Does the new superintendent look familiar?"

Nick and Joe looked up at the superintendent, who was kindly encouraging the current speaker to shut up already.

Joe shrugged and muttered something that amounted to, "I don't know," while Nick gave it a moment more thought. The woman did look familiar, maybe she'd been a teacher in the district for a while. That would explain where he'd seen her. He craned his neck, but hers was the only place without a name plate and he was forced to give it up. A moment later the meeting finally got around to Angeletti.

There was an immediate roar of voices vying for first shot at the man and the superintendent had to yell for order so loudly that she needed a drink of water afterward. Angeletti, sitting at the front of the room, remained silent. His back was ramrod straight and the only sign of distress he showed was the whitening of the knuckles on his fisted left hand.

"I suggest," Mrs. Snark said while the superintendent gulped down her water, "that we let the Lucas brothers go first." She smiled brightly at them and even began to clap her hands.

"Oh boy," Joe muttered, sinking down into his seat while Kevin pretended to be way too engrossed in Tom's game.

Nick gulped and began to rise.

"Actually," the superintendent said, "I believe Miss Malone has reserved the first spot." She ignored Mrs. Snark's pout and gestured kindly for Stella to come forward.

"What's she gonna do?" Kevin asked.

"She could ruin everything," Nick said, knowing that this had to be handled carefully.

"Why is _he _going with her?" Joe asked darkly.

"Yeah," Nick said as Stella and the mystery guy walked past. "_That's_ the thing to be concerned about."

Just as Stella began to graciously address the crowd, Kevin began batting at his brothers wildly to get their attention.

"What what what?" Joe asked angrily, pushing Kevin's arm away.

Sandy leaned around Tom to give the boys a look and they all went quiet until she sat back again.

"I know that guy," Kevin whispered out of the side of his mouth.

"You do?" Nick and Joe asked, both in very different tones.

"He's the guy I saw this morning! And you're never gonna believe, I think he's -"

Just then Stella asked the mystery man to "get things ready" and he pulled off his hat before getting to work on the laptop and projector set up at the side of the room.

"Paolo!" the boys gasped.

Stella and the superintendent shot them a look.

"Sorry," Joe said sheepishly and all three of them slid down in their seats.

"Does this mean Fiona's here?" Joe asked worriedly, sliding further down.

"I hope not," Nick muttered.

Paolo nodded to Stella that everything was ready to go.

"Could someone turn off the lights?" she asked.

When the lights went off Paolo hit a button on the laptop and the projector flickered to life. It took a moment for the boys to realize that they were seeing Angeletti's office. The angle was odd, like someone had put the camera next to one of the filing cabinets in the corner.

The door opened and Angeletti came in saying, "Make this quick, Miss Misa. You have class in a few minutes."

"You gave the guys detention again," Macy said, all but glaring at the principal as he took his seat behind the desk.

"They created a disturbance," Angeletti said mildly while organizing papers on his desk.

"They were trying to **stop** a disturbance."

"I do not see a difference."

"I'm not playing on Saturday," Macy countered.

Angeletti's hands stilled and he slowly looked up at Macy. "Is that so?"

Macy gave one curt nod. There was a long moment of tense silence.

"Summer school."

"What?" Macy asked.

"Summer school. I can keep the Lucas brothers here all year long. And then how would they have their precious world tours? You will play in Saturday's tournament or I will give those boys detention every Saturday from now until they graduate - which will be a long time coming at this rate. Are we clear?"

Macy seethed and for a moment it looked like she might hit him but she turned abruptly towards the door.

"What about the hamster?" she asked, now out of frame.

"I imagine it'll be dissected soon enough."

Paolo cut the video and someone brought the lights back up on the silent room. Macy had made it to the front of the room during the presentation and was standing calmly beside Stella.

"I demand to know who this young man is!" Angeletti burst out, rising from his seat. "He has illegally invaded my office and my privacy. And I'm fairly certain he is not even a student, which means he was trespassing on school grounds."

"John," Stella said at the same moment Macy said, "Luke."

"He's not John _or_ Luke," Kevin said, "he's -"

Joe and Nick leapt on Kevin, clapping their hands over his mouth.

"He's confused," Joe said.

"He's really bad with faces," Nick added.

The superintendent gave a slight, amused smile. "Who this man does not matter at the moment," she said to Angeletti. "What matters is that you appear to have extorted a student. Do you have anything to say for yourself? Can you shed some non-incriminating light on this video?"

Angeletti straightened his jacket. "Miss Misa is the one guilty of extortion. She attempted to get her friends out of detention by threatening to quit the chess team."

This brought on its own round of outraged cries. No one who knew Macy could believe that she would quit a team or dare to threaten a teacher.

The superintendent let the yells go on for a moment longer than before.

"Miss Misa?" she asked when things had died down.

"I would never try to get someone out of detention if they deserved it," Macy said sincerely. "And even though I can't prove that," she added, glancing back at Angeletti, "you can ask anyone who knew me before high school and they'll tell you that I _hate_ chess. A lot. The way I hate losing. Losing to -"

"She gets it," Stella whispered.

Macy smiled sheepishly and went on. "I hadn't played in years before Angeletti told me that if I didn't he'd give the guys detention."

"And," Stella added, "you can check the school records. She wasn't on the chess team until this week."

"It happened on the same day you and Joe got your detentions rescinded, didn't it?" Macy asked.

"I think so," Stella agreed.

"All right, ladies," the superintendent said, "that's enough. Mr. Angeletti? You are suspended until further notice and all punishments you doled out in your short time as my replacement will be on hold until this can be straightened out." She went on, explaining that the board would be reviewing the case against him, but the sound was drowned out by the joyous cries from the Horace Mantis students in the room.

* * *

"Is Paolo gonna be okay?" Nick asked the minute they reached the girls after the meeting was over. It wasn't the most important bit of news but he knew if he gave Joe or Kevin the first word he'd never get any answers.

"He'll be fine," Stella said, "he's already on his way back to LA."

"How did you guys do that?" Kevin asked.

"You remember Principal Duncan?" Stella asked, nodding to the superintendent. "She came back to check on the school a few days ago and we got to talking. Turns out she never trusted Angeletti to be her replacement and when I told her how horrible he was she asked if I could help bust him."

"So," Macy said, "we called Paolo since he's the only paparazzo we like. He was more than happy to help."

"That's who you were hiding this morning!" Joe gasped. "And in the girls bathroom? Ew."

"You told our Dad, didn't you?" Nick asked. "That's why he's been so calm."

Stella nodded. "I didn't want him to worry."

"But you couldn't tell me?" Joe asked. "I thought I was gonna have to spend all day Saturday with Van Dork."

"Don't call him that! And no, I couldn't tell you! You can't keep a secret to save your life."

"Hey! I can keep a secret! I never told anyone about your weird fear of clown fish."

Stella gasped. "Joe!"

"Is that why you never saw _Finding Nemo_?" Macy asked sadly. Her question went unanswered since Stella was already chasing Joe around the nearly empty room. Everyone else, it seemed, had been eager to go out and celebrate.

"Uh, guys?" Tom called, dodging around Stella and Joe as they went out the door. "We're gonna go soon!" Kevin and Nick nodded and Tom turned to go. As he left they heard him yell, "Stella! Not the face! He needs that for Washington!"

This brought instant smiles to Macy, Nick, and Kevin's faces.

"We're going to Washington!" Kevin and Macy cried happily, grabbing each other's hands and jumping for joy.

"Wait," Kevin said suddenly. "What about the chess team?"

"If Coach didn't already hear that I was off the team, he'll know by the time school starts tomorrow."

"Good," Kevin said with a grin. A moment later their jumping and yelling began again.

Nick rolled his eyes and headed for the door, wincing at the sound of Stella and Joe yelling. As happy as he was to be going to Washington, he wasn't sure it was worth it if he had to travel with the four of them.

* * *

_AN: The classic this is based on is Shakespeare's _Measure for Measure_. Congrats to everyone who guessed! And as always..._

_reviews = love_


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